Memories and musings of the Miller family of western Nebraska - their ancestors and descendants

Friday, July 13, 2012

Remembering Charlotte Miller...

We were saddened by the news that Charlotte Miller had died
last week.

According to her family, she passed away on Sunday, July 1, 2012,
while being transported from her home in Metaline Falls, Washington, to the
hospital in nearby Colville. She
was 87 years old.

Charlotte and brother Gerald

“Aunt Charlotte,” as she was known by so many of us, was a
product of the tough Depression years. But we never heard her complain about how tough things
were – and they were plenty tough for the Flock family of northeast Nebraska,
where she was born and raised.

Charlotte Lavonne was the 12th of 13 children in the family of Lyman and Charlotte “Lottie” Flock. Born at Loretto in Boone County Nebraska on September 13,
1924, her family moved to nearby Bartlett and eventually to the community of
Spalding, Nebraska, where Charlotte began school.

Lyman Flock “did a little bit of everything,” Charlotte once
told us. He worked in the wheat
fields, at the Gambles store in Spalding, and on a road repair crew. Whenever and wherever he could find a job during those early
years of the 1930’s, Lyman went to work – including work as caretaker for the
cemetery. Complicating things was
Lyman’s health, which took a sharp turn for the worse in 1934. He suffered from
“double pneumonia” and kidney failure.
Lyman died on May 7, 1934 at 62 years of age.

His wife, Lottie, was left with little more than several
children who needed to be fed and cared for, including their 9-year-old
daughter Charlotte, and Gerald, who was the youngest in the family.

Within months, the widow Flock—along with her youngest
children, Charlotte and Gerald – moved to Chadron, where her older sister,
Mary, and family lived. Charlotte attended school at both Chadron Prep and the city school system. And it was in Chadron some years later
that she met Fred Miller from nearby Whitney.

They wed on June 2, 1942, but with the United State in the
throes of World War II, it was just a matter of a few months that Fred was
drafted and was on his way to basic training with the Army Air Corps in
California. Their first child, Jean,
was born in Chadron in 1943. After
training in Lincoln, Nebraska, and then Chicago, Illinois, Fred was assigned to
installations ranging from Kearns, Utah, and Indianapolis, Indiana, to Fresno
and Glendale, California.

Charlotte and Jean were able to join Fred when he was
assigned to duty first at Moses Lake, Washington, and later at Ephrata. Their second child, Pete, was born in
nearby Wenatchee in February of 1945, and Fred was
discharged from the Army Air Cops nine months later -- on Armistice Day of 1945.

After a short stint back in Chadron after the war, The young
Miller family packed up and headed back for Washington, where Charlotte’s mother and
other family members were living. It was the summer of 1947. While Fred worked at a variety of jobs, two more Miller children
were born: Wayne in 1948 and Charlie
in 1950. Both were born in Ione.

Within a few years, Fred and most of the boys were working
at the Lehigh Cement plan in Metaline Falls. And it’s there that the Millers made their home and
raised their family.

Charlotte and Fred were able to watch their children grow,
marry, and have families of their own.
Delightfully, the children all have remained in eastern Washington,
where they’ve raised their own families.
Watching their children and grandchildren grow up – and then having them
near in their later years – was a joy.

From their modest house perched on a hillside overlooking
the Pend Oreille Rive at Metaline Falls, Washington, Fred and Charlotte enjoyed
the home that they had created for themselves and their descendants in this
beautiful region of America. They
camped, fished, celebrated birthdays and enjoyed the fruits of their labors. The above photograph was taken when Fred and Charlotte celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. Left-to-right are: Pete, Charlie, Jean, Fred, Charlotte, and Wayne. Thanks to Pete Miller for sharing these photos.

We've added this and a few other photographs of Charlotte, Fred, and the Fred Miller family in our Miller Family Gallery.

Fred died suddenly in late December of 2005.

And now, almost seven years later, Charlotte will join Fred
as her ashes are scattered along the landscape of the Pend Oreille valley.